Church law should states that the selection process will begin no earlier than May 6

International news via Reuters:

No one knows who the world’s Catholic cardinals will choose to succeed Pope Francis as the new leader of the global Catholic Church. But for those watching attentively, there are sometimes hints about who might emerge as the next pontiff.

The process to choose a new pope is long and secretive. Most of the world’s 252 cardinals are coming to Rome to take part. Those under the age of 80, about 135 prelates, are preparing to enter into a conclave to elect the next pontiff.

Once it starts, which by Church law should be no earlier than May 6, the cardinals will be completely shut off from the modern world until a new pope is named.

In the meantime, they can attend public events and give interviews about what they are looking for in the next leader of the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics.

“Reading the pre-conclave signs to identify papal candidates is tricky, because the signs are usually very subtle,” said John Thavis, a Vatican correspondent who covered three papacies.

Francis died on Monday aged 88. There is no clear frontrunner to succeed him.

As the pope was recovering from pneumonia over the Easter weekend, he asked retired cardinals over the age of 80 to preside in his place at the Vatican’s various celebrations of the holiday, possibly because he did not want to signal any favourite successor.

The pope’s funeral, on Saturday, April 26, will be the first big moment to watch for signs of who might be next.

Tens of thousands, including dozens of world leaders such as U.S. President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, are expected in St. Peter’s Square for the ceremony. Millions more will be watching across the globe.

The cardinals attending will listen closely to the sermon given by Italian Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, the ceremonial leader of the College of Cardinals and a retired Vatican official.

At the funeral of Pope John Paul II in 2005, the sermon was delivered by German Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, who offered what many thought was a stirring elocution on the late pope’s life and legacy.

Eleven days later, Ratzinger would be elected as Pope Benedict XVI.

Re is 91 years old, cannot enter the conclave and is not a papal contender. But insiders expect he might still try to offer a guide for his confreres to follow in the way he chooses to describe Francis’ papacy, or in any words he uses to describe the needs of the Catholic Church today.

HINTS EMERGING SLOWLY

The papal funeral marks the first of nine days of mourning for the global Church. Another Mass of mourning will be held in St. Peter’s Square on Sunday. That will be led by Italian Cardinal Pietro Parolin, often cited as a leading papal contender.

“The cliche … is he who enters the conclave a pope leaves a cardinal,” said Christopher Bellitto, an historian at Kean University in New Jersey who specializes on the Church. “Only prophets know what is going to happen.”

Other hints for possible successors to Francis will likely come out more slowly.

In 2013, as the cardinals gathered in Rome after Benedict’s surprise resignation, some of the U.S. prelates preparing to take part in the conclave started giving press conferences.

The wider group of the world’s cardinals later asked them to stop doing the briefings.

Even if there are no press conferences this time, cardinals spending time in Rome often celebrate Masses at churches across the city. The sermons they offer on those occasions could give indications of what they are thinking.

“Any signs will come in bits and pieces, or phrases used to describe what cardinals are looking for in the next pope,” said Thavis.

“Words like ‘openness’ and ‘reform’ may fit certain cardinals, while ‘administrative skills’ and ‘solid theology’ may describe others,” he said.

BEHIND CLOSED DOORS

The biggest hints will come in the daily meetings the cardinals have in the week leading up to the conclave.

In these meetings, known as “general congregations”, the cardinals have an opportunity to speak freely and even, perhaps, to offer a vision for a future papacy under their own leadership.

In 2013, Argentine Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio offered a short reflection at one of those meetings.

He said the Church, beset by sexual abuse and financial scandals, had become “sick” and too “self-referential”, according to a text that was later published. He said the Church needed to do a better job of trying to open itself up to the modern world.

A few days later, Bergoglio would be elected as Pope Francis.

The final deliberations about who should follow Francis will take place in conclave. The cardinals who enter the Sistine Chapel to vote will be sealed off from the world, forbidden from reading newspapers or speaking with the outside world.

As they enter their deliberations, Archbishop Diego Ravelli, who leads the Vatican’s liturgical celebrations, will shout, in Latin, “Extra omnes!” (Everyone out!)

Reporting by Joshua McElwee; Editing by Alex Richardson

On-record as the worst attack on civilians in India since the 2008 Mumbai shootings

International news via Reuters:

Twenty-six men were killed and 17 were injured when suspected militants opened fire at tourists in India’s Jammu and Kashmir territory, police said on Wednesday, the worst such attack in the country in nearly two decades.

It was the worst attack on civilians in India since the 2008 Mumbai shootings, and shattered the relative calm in Kashmir, where tourism has boomed as an anti-India insurgency has waned in recent years.

The attack took place on Tuesday in the Baisaran valley in the Pahalgam area of the scenic, Himalayan federal territory and the dead included 25 Indians and one Nepalese national, police said.

The attack is seen as a setback to what Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party have projected as a major achievement in revoking the semi-autonomous status Jammu and Kashmir enjoyed and bringing peace and development to the long-troubled Muslim-majority region.

Modi cut short his two-day visit to Saudi Arabia and returned to New Delhi on Wednesday morning. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman was also cutting short her visit to the United States and Peru “to be with our people in this difficult and tragic time”, her ministry said.

Modi held a meeting with the national security adviser, the foreign minister and other senior officials at the airport and a special security cabinet meeting had been called for 1230 GMT, a defence ministry official said.

A little-known militant group, the “Kashmir Resistance,” claimed responsibility for the attack in a social media message. It expressed discontent that more than 85,000 “outsiders” had been settled in the region, spurring a “demographic change”.

In a fresh statement on Wednesday, the group said that the “individuals targeted were not ordinary tourists; instead, they were linked to and affiliated with Indian security agencies”.

“It was not a typical tourist group but rather an undercover agency tasked with research,” it said and added that the attack should “serve as a wake-up call not only for Delhi but also for those who support Delhi’s questionable strategies”.

“Resistance fighters plan to intensify their strategic attacks to ensure that those involved in undermining … (the) resistance struggle face appropriate consequences,” it warned.

Hundreds of security forces rushed to the Pahalgam area soon after the attack and a massive combing operation was launched in the forests there, two security sources told Reuters. About 100 people suspected to have been militant sympathisers in the past were called to police stations and questioned, they added.

Police also released sketches of three of the four suspected

attackers.

The attackers were dressed in traditional long shirts and loose trousers and one of them was wearing a bodycam, one security source said, adding that there were about 1,000 tourists and about 300 local service providers and workers when the attack took place.

They opened fire at three spots in Baisaran valley which is popular among tourists for its lush meadows and pristine landscape surrounded by dense pine forests on all sides.

Visitors have to trek or hire ponies to reach the spot where there are adventure sports facilities such as ziplining and zorbing.

Indian security agencies say Kashmir Resistance is a front for Pakistan-based militant organisations such as Lashkar-e-Taiba and Hizbul Mujahideen. Pakistan has said it only provides moral and diplomatic support to the insurgency in Kashmir.

“We are concerned at the loss of tourists’ lives,” Pakistani foreign ministry spokesman Shafqat Ali Khan said in a statement. “We extend our condolences to the near ones of the deceased and wish the injured a speedy recovery.”

KASHMIR SHUTDOWN

On Wednesday, over a dozen local organisations called for a shutdown in the federal territory to protest against the attack on tourists, whose rising numbers have helped the local economy.

Many schools also suspended classes for the day in protest.

The shutdown was total and protest marches were taken out in parts of the Kashmir Valley, with people shouting slogans such as “Stop killing innocents”, “Tourists are our lives”, “It is an attack on us”.

“I want to say to the people of the country that we are ashamed, Kashmir is ashamed,” former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti said in a statement. “We are standing with you in this time of crisis.”

Airlines were operating extra flights from Srinagar, the summer capital of the territory, as visitors were rushing out of the region, officials said.

“It’s heartbreaking to see the exodus of our guests,” serving Chief Minister Omar Abdullah said on X, adding that the main highway connecting Srinagar to the rest of the country which was damaged by heavy rain had been opened for one-way traffic out of Srinagar to help tourists leaving by road.

Television visuals showed tourists carrying their bags to taxis and filing out of a hotel in Srinagar.

“How can we continue our trip in such a situation?” Sameer Bhardwaj, a tourist from New Delhi, told news agency ANI. “We need to prioritise our safety.”

Aviation Minister Rammohan Naidu Kinjarapu’s office said four special flights from Srinagar – two to Delhi and two to Mumbai – have been arranged, with additional flights kept on standby.

The aviation regulator said there was an “unexpected demand” from tourists wanting to return from Kashmir and asked airlines to consider waiving cancellation and rescheduling fees.

While some local tourist operators said they were already getting cancellations for the upcoming peak summer season, the local unit of the Travel Agents Federation of India condemned the attack.

“We will continue to encourage travel to the Valley and stand strong against those who seek to spread fear and unrest,” local unit chairman Shamim Shah said in a statement.

Militant violence has afflicted Kashmir, claimed in full but ruled in part by both Hindu-majority India and Islamic Pakistan, since the anti-Indian insurgency began in 1989. Tens of thousands of people have been killed, although violence has tapered off in recent years.

India revoked Kashmir’s special status in 2019, splitting the state into two federally administered territories – Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh. The move allowed local authorities to issue domicile rights to outsiders, allowing them to get jobs and buy land in the territory.

That led to a deterioration of ties with Pakistan, which also claims the region. The dispute has spurred bitter animosity and military conflict between the nuclear-armed neighbours.

Attacks targeting tourists in Kashmir have been rare. The last deadly incident took place in June 2024 when at least nine people were killed and 33 injured after a militant attack caused a bus carrying Hindu pilgrims to plunge into a deep gorge.

Reporting by Fayaz Bukhari; Additional reporting by Nigam Prusty in New Delhi, Sudipto Ganguly and Shilpa Jamkhandikar in Mumbai, and Charlotte Greenfield in Islamabad; Writing by YP Rajesh; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman and Raju Gopalakrishnan